A Strange Young Man
by Varange
Summary: A rather quiet young man. A strange yet generous bar owner. A hunter who hunts unheard strange ingredients. A chef with great skills despite his young age. Those are what people see in him. But is there anything more about him? No one knows. But there is one thing for sure:A Wild Card that no one can control. Slight crossover with Toriko. Pairing undecided. Rate M just to be safe.
1. Prologue

**Author's rant: Something I wrote out of my amusement when I was having a HUGE writing block of the update of 'The Ring Wizard Champion' and after I read "Will of Fire", a crossover of Naruto and Akame ga Kill written by One-Winged Angel of Death, the idea just kept dancing in my mind. Don't expect a soon update for this fic since this fic is not my top priority. Hell, I'm not even sure if the title I came up with for this fic is good or not.**

 **Anyway, enjoy the show, minna-san. And the update of 'The Ring Wizard Champion may come in a few more day... At least I hope so.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing except my plot.**

 **Prologue:**

 **[Unknown place]**

 _Under the heavy rain, a pale ash skin muscular man with a scar on his right eyes and a red tattoo ran from his left eye to his torso and his left arm could be seen standing as he looked at the world around him ._

 _The world was being scorched and ravaged by the destruction and utter chaos. The consequence of his vengeance._

" _You have done well,_ _ **Kratos**_ _." Said a voice as a pale emerald ghost-like figure appeared from behind the man making him slightly turned his head toward the voice "Freed from the bondage of Olympus and cleansed in chaos, mankind is now ready to hear my message."_

" _Look around you_ _ **Athena**_ _. The world stands in ruin! What good is your message?" sneered Kratos in anger before he turned his back and started leaving._

" _Go if you must. But first, I insist you give me the power from inside the box." This made themuscular man stopped dead in his track_

" _The box... was empty." Sneered Kratos without turning to the former Goddess of War and Wisdom._

" _That can't be true." Said the pale emerald silhoutte as she appeared in front of Kratos "I can see it in your eyes. You used my poer to kill Zeus. You still have it as we speak."_

" _Don't you understand? When Zeus gathered all the evils and placed them in the box. I dreaded what would happen if it was opened again. And so I summoned the most powerful weapon and placed it in the box."_

" _I told you, it was empty." Cut off Kratos before he muttered in a regretful voice "Pandora was sacrificed in vain... She died because of my need for vengeance..."_

" _You must be mistaken. You used my power to kill Zeus. I saw you do it... " said Athena before her voice slowly became thoughtful "... Unless... Of course..."_

" _When you opened the box, you released the evils to the gods. Infected them. Changed them." Mused Athena to herself as every pieces slowly fell into its place "Zeus himself fell prey to the dark evils. This is why he became so enraged and obsesses with your death. He was consumed by the evil, Fear."_

" _I thought the power I placed in the box was never released. All these years I have assumed you drew the power from the evils inside to destroy Ares. But I was wrong..."_

" _The power you took from the box is mine." Exclaimed Athena "From it you gained the strength that Zeus could never destroy. A strength great enough to overcome Fear."_

" _Locked deep inside of you Kratos, is Hope." Concluded the silhoutte as Kratos looked at his hands, which were now covered in warm blue flame "It has remained buried. Trapped by your guilt and the failure of your past. When you killed Zeus, you must have allowed something to awaken it. What was it, Kratos?"_

 _And that moment, the silhoutte of a girl flashed in his mind._

' _ **Hope is what makes us strong. It is why we are here. It is what we fight with when all else is lost.'**_

" _What was it, Kratos?" unawared of what Kratos was thinking, Athena repeated the question impatiently_

" _... All I remember is what I have lost." Said Kratos in sorrow with his usual gruff tone_

" _This is why you should give me the power. I understand its true meaning and where it belongs. I trust you to do the right thing, Kratos."_

" _You shouldn't." Said Kratos as he crouched down near a golden blade that had a greenish hue emitting from the crossguard._

" _You own me this, Kratos."_

" _I own you nothing!" shot back Kratos as he picked up the blade and glared at Athena_

" _I made you a god. I sheltered you from the wraith of Olympus. I delivered your revenge on Zeus..."_

" _It's over, Athena." Cut off Kratos as he gripped the hilt of the blade_

" _You dare strike me down, again?" asked Athena in an enraged tone._

 _But to the surprise of the former goddess, Kratos lowered his head before the pale skin man looked at her dead in the eyes_

" _My vengeance... ends now."_

 **[Scene change]**

A grey eye snapped open as its owner groggily got up from his position of sleeping, which was a large branch of a huge tree near a small stream.

"... Ugh..." groaned the young man who was clad in simple grey shirt, black pants and a pair of combat shoes as he stretched his limb. While his back was a little sore due to leaning against the tree for a long time, the sleep was really good nonetheless... Though he couldn't say the same about his last dream...

Shaking his head in order to snap himself out of his sleepy state, the young man jumped from the branch and land softly on his feet before he approached the stream and started splashing the cold water onto his face and his messy ivory hair.

'Oi, Kratos. Are you awake?' asked the young man mentally as he tried to shake off the water on his hair.

' **...'**

'Oi, Kratos. Are you awake?' the young man repeated the question in his mind after a minute not receiving any answer

' **...'**

'Still asleep, huh?' thought the young man as he cracked his neck a little so that he could discard a small tension in his neck. If only he had brought some **Princess Straw Grains** along with him, he would have made a makeshift bed made from straw in case he couldn't have found any good place to pass a night. Oh well, regreting wouldn't change anything, thought the young man somberly. Perhaps next time, then.

Shaking his head tiredly, the young man returned to the tree and retrieved his grey trench coat and his backpack hanged on a small branch. If his estimation was correct, the Capital was about two-day walking from where he currently was and while he would rather walk and enjoy the views around him than quickly rushed to that corrupted Capital, this time he would make an exception, especially that tomorrow would be the serving day of his bar again. But before he could start his run...

*GROWL*

... he needed to refill his stomach first.

Opening his backpack, the young man took out a container and took out from said container a small plate-size slice of strange golden vegetable which had texture more similar to high quality meat instead of vegetable. After taking a long sniff, the young man slowly chewed the slice of vegetable and savored it heavenly taste as he could feel the oxygen and nutrients concentrated in the slice of vegetable quickly washed all of his tiredness and exhaustion away as well as making his growling stomach shut up. Now he could run non-stop until he reached his destination.

Finishing his breakfast with some water from a metal flask, the young man put on his trench coat and his backpack as a pair of greaves with red wings coiled around appeared on his legs. And with a simple stomp, the wings spread out and the young man started running with an inhuman speed, leaving behind a blur of golden trail blaze slowly dissipated into the gently blowing wind.

(End Prologue)


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's rant: Well, this fic even has a rougher start than my 'Sarishinohara' fic. Thank you for my friend that had draw an illustration for my OC, which is also the cover image of this fic, even though she based on utaite Rairu instead of my description TT_TT . Anyway, I will continue this fic a little bit more then. And for some unknown reasons, I couldn't add Kratos into the characters list in the summary. Just what the hell is happening?**

 **Anyway, enjoy the show, minna-san.**

 **Chapter 1:**

 _"Death ... Are you sure that death is the end of everything? Have you ever thought that you could be in a worse place after death? And have you ever thought about receiving a fate worse than death?"_

 **[The Capital]**

"Awww, why the bar doesn't open today? I want to drink that **Summer Whiskey** and have some of that **Cheese Cabbage** again!" complained a certain busty blond hair assassin who had golden eyes, short blond hair with two long bangs framing the sides of her face as she was clad in a revealing outfit consisted of a black tube top, pants, brown combat boots and a white scarf around her neck.

"Really, Leone? You still want to drink that wine even after it made you become so drunk that you nearly rape **Chef** before it knocked you drop-dead while you used Chef as a hugging pillow?" said her companion, a young man who had short green hair and red goggles on the top of his head, in disbelief as both of them were currently standing in front of the 'Closed' sign which was hanged on the door of a simple-looking bar with a sign said ' **Ichiryu's Bar'**.

 **Ichiryu's Bar** , a rather modest bar located at south of the Capital where many of the poor lived, which had been opened roughly about two months ago by a young man who was called by the name **'Chef '** by the customers, yet had been quickly acknownledged by both the poor and the rich thanked to sellings various of very high quality drinks and dishes that only the bar had with rather low prices compared to other bars in the Capital. But that wasn't the main reason made the reputation of the bar rise quickly in just roughly two months.

It was the bar's unique rules as well as its unique open time that made the bar became famous.

Firstly, **'Ingredients choose customers'**. The customers absolutely had no say in what kind of dishes they were going to have when they came to the bar as their dishes would be decided by the ingrdients that 'choose' them after they gave Chef their names. Arcording to Chef, if a customer was chosen by no ingredient, that customer wouldn't be served no matter what.

Secondly, the bar only opened in three random days each week. No one could know what days the bar would open or close, and reservation meant nothing to the young Chef. And more importantly. In three days of a week, there would be a special serving day that the customers would be served food free, though they would still have to pay for their drink but of course, that didn't made the bar in the special serving day become less crowded

And finally, **'All are equal'** and **'No violence in the bar'**. All the customers that the ingredients had 'chosen' were treated equally, regardless of their position in the society. Of course, this rule made the bar lose quite a number of customers coming from the rich and the noble since many of them refused to eat in the same room or table with the poor but it seemed the young owner didn't really care about it. Also, all kind of violence or threats were prohibitted in the bar. These two rules along with a rumor (which Chef denied) that the young owner of the bar had single-handedly kicked a bunch of Imperial Police out of the bar for threatening a poor customer in a special serving day made the bar become even more porpular with the poor and low-class citizen.

"Shush, **Lubbock**. I don't mind hugging him even a bit. He has a very firm body along with a very nice smell" said Leone with a dismissive wave of her hand along with a flirtatious smile on her face"And it's not like that Chef minded me using him as my hugging pillow anyway."

"That's not my point. And it's more like Chef is too untalkative to voice a complaint." Deadpanned Lubbock "And even if he wanted, he couldn't complain because you literally had his head buried in your chest."

"Why? Why don't Chef open the bar everyday?" moaned Leone as she completely ignored what Lubbock had said, making the green hair assassin sighed in defeat.

"Anyway, I'm off to my bookstore." Said Lubbock but before he took his leave, something on a wall quickly gained his attention

"Hey Leone, take a look at this." Lubbock's call quickly snapped Leone back to reality "It seems the reputation of ' **The Black Smoke'** has surpassed Akame's reputation."

On the wall that the blond assassin was currently looking at, a wanted poster could be seen along with a drawing of a human silhoutte covered in black smoke. And not exactly a good drawing.

 **WANTED**

 **DEAD OR ALIVE**

' **The Black Smoke'**

 **Feature: Having a screen of black smoke covers the body**

 **Reward: 10.000.000**

"Pffft... Hahahahaha!" Leone couldn't help but laugh out loud hard after reading the wanted poster "What kind of idiot would think this poster could help catching this one? And really? 'The Black Smoke'? Who is the idiot gave this name? I can think half a dozen of nicknames that sound way better than this **'The Black Smoke'**!"

"Name aside, having a reward that even rivals with the reward for Boss's head meaning this person isn't the kind to be taken easy." Whistled Lubbock after he read the number of the reward

"It couldn't be help. After all," said Leone as the busty assassin shrugged her shoulders "arcording to Boss's information source, this person is the one who brutally killed the Vice-Prime Minister and somehow turned the Secretary along with his family into a state that similar yet much worse than persistent vegetative state last month. "

"Really? But how? Is there such a Teigu that could do that?" Groaned Lubbock "Anh more importantly, is this guy an ally or an enemy to us?"

"To be honest, even Boss doesn't know. All she said were 'For now, try not to cross path with this person at any cost.'." Said Leone with a shake of her head and this made Lubbock feel a chill ran through his spine. If Boss had said that, then it meant this **'The Black Smoke'** was very dangerous. But there was something kept bugging him...

"Wait Leone, but if this information is so important, why haven't I heard this thing from Boss? " asked Lubbock as he turned to his side only to find his companion had mysteriously disappeared with a paper left on the ground. Curiously, the young ma picked up the paper only to have his eyesbrows started twitching after reading said paper.

' _That day you had to stay at your bookstore in order to keep your cover and I forgot to tell you, ooops._

 _Anyway, I'm off to have some drink. See you at the HQ later.'_

Tearing the paper to pieces, Lubbock shook his head as he also took his leave. He hoped the blond assassin would remember that tonight they would have a mission needed to be carried out.

 **[Scene change]**

"Do we have all the groceries we need, **Sheele**?" asked **Akame** , a young girl with long black hair that reaches down to her knees and red eyes as she wore an outfit consisted of a dark sleeveless mini dress with a white collar, a red tie, a red belt that had a red side skirt cover, long black socks and black shoes. In her left hand was her trusted Teigu, Murasame while in her other hand was a bag full of groceries.

"I believe we have enough, Akame." replied her companion, who was a slender woman with long purple hair and purple eyes with a pair of glasses and a faint scar on her right cheek. She wore a revealing sleeveless lilac cheongsam with detached lilac arm sleeves and white boots.

"Then let's get back" said Akame curtly as Sheele had a small smile on her face. Usually Akame was tasked with hunting and gathering food in the forest but today, the red eyes girl was tasked with helping the clumsy purple hair female assassin buying groceries for the Night Raid. And anyone who knew about the reward for Akame's head as well as her big appetite for meat from danger-beasts and fish could easily guess how annoyed Akame could be when she couldn't go hunting, given that she always ate a good chunk of her hunting before brought them bback to the headquarter.

"Have you made sure that you didn't mistake sugar for salt?" asked Akame again which earned a nod of confirmation as well as a small laugh from Sheele. "Then let's head ba..."

Suddenly, the usual serious and stoic Akame that Sheele knew suddenly went stiffed as her eyes widened for a second, much to the purple hair young woman's surprise.

"Akane? Akane, What's wrong? " said Sheele as she tried snapped her friend out of her state

"... No... Nothing... Perhaps it's just my imagination. Let's go back, Sheele." said the black hair assassin before taking her leave, much to Sheele's surprise and confusion. Shaking her head slightly, the young woman followed Akame. Perhaps it was really just the imagination of Akame, thought Sheele to herself.

But unbeknown to Sheele, on the other side of the street there were two girls stopped dead in their track as one of them spoke quietly

"Hey **Tsukushi** , I thought I just saw Akame" said the taller girl who was a young girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes. She was clad in a long white shirt with black pants and shoes. She also wore silver hoop earrings.

"Maybe it's just your imagination, **Cornelia**." said the slight shorter girl who had short light brown hair with a small ahoge and a small flower hairclip on the bang of her hair. She wore an outfit that similar to the taller girl though her shirt color was brown.

"Yeah... Maybe so..." said Cornelia with a small sigh before she turned back to Tsukushi "Anyway, do you still have the address he gave us?"

"No worry" said Tsukushi with a very bright smile as Cornelia could feel her eyebrows started twitching "I can remember anything as long as it concerned about my dear darling~!"

 **[Short timeskip, scene change]**

On the pave of a street, a young man who was clad in a simple grey shirt, black pants, black combat shoes and a grey trench coat could be seen sitting with his back leant against a lamp post drinking something from a white metal flask. He wasn't exactly handsome or dashing. The bang of his ivory hair dropped down his forehead nearly hid his right eyes from other people's view. There is no charisma or charm could be seen on him as his face held a look of neutrality while his eyes never left the scene of the sun that was gradually going down.

'How is the taste of **Rainbow Fruit Wine** , Kratos?' thought the young man mentally before he received a grunt coming from his mind

' **Very good. The flavor changes seven times. It really reminds me about the Nectar that I used to drink.'**

'... Hey Kratos, the latest dream that I had... was that...'

' **It's a part of my last moment if you want to know, child.'** came the short answer of the spirit resided in the young man before he could finish his question.

Nodding his head in acceptance, the young man continued to drink the wine in his flask. If the spirit lived in him decided not to elaborate more then he wouldn't push it.

Chuckling quietly to himself, the young man started reminscing his past. This day ten years ago, it was the day he had first met the spirit living in him.

 **[Flashback, unknown place, ten years ago]**

 _Run._

 _The instinch of a ten-year-old boy was screaming at him, yelling him to run away from the huge beast in front of him._

 _But he just couldn't move. His exhausting body and his injured legs refused to obeyed his mind._

 _Devouring a life and give its life to other beings. It was just a simple rule of nature: Eat or to be eaten. And he knew in the eyes of the beast in front of him, he was just a prey, waiting to be devoured by the predator._

 _The paw of the huge beast was raised high as the beast let out a growl, as if it let out a victory cry._

 _Was this the end of his life? No, he couldn't except it!_

 _The village was waiting for him to bring back something to eat yet he was going to become food!_

 _He didn't want to die now!_

 _He wanted to survive!_

 _He wanted to live!_

 _As the beast slammed its paw toward him, the time around him seemed slow down to the point it was nearly stopped._

 _And that moment, the ivory boy swore he saw an image of muscular man with a long red tattoo appeared in front of him._

 _Who was that man? Was his mind tricking him?_

' _ **Perhaps I will lend you my power for a short time, container. Just don't die.'**_ _sneered the man before he dissipated into the air._

" _GRAAAHH!"_

 _Before he could understand, he could feel a sudden burst of energy ran through his body as he unconciously let out a loud cry. Purple cold flame exploded around him and knocking the huge beast back. Feeling his hands were holding something, the boy looked down only to find he was holding a pair of claw-liked hooks attached to two long chains that draped around a pair of forearm armors on his arms. But that wasn't what frighten him._

 _The purple light that was emitting from the hooks. The stench of rot and decay, the faint odor that reminded him about a graveyard. The feeling of holding onto something akin to 'Death' itself. Those feelings made a cold chill ran through his spine._

" _GRAAAHH!"_

 _The beast, now fully standing up after being knocked back by the blast earlier, let out a huge angry roar and jumped at the boy with his mouth full of sharp teeth open, intending to devour its prey._

 _Before the boy could think, his instinch had already taken control and he rolled to the left side, narrowly dodged the jaws of the beasts. Growling, the beast turned its head to its prey only to find a hook was thrown to its left eyes_

" _Graaah!" the beast cried out in pain but before it could do anything, the boy forcefully pulled the chain and slammed the beast's skull into the ground with a newfound strength that amazed the boy himself. But what amazed him more was the fact he knew how to use this weapon even though this was the first time he saw it, let alone holding it in his hands._

" _GROAHH!" the beast violently shook his head in an attempt to shake off the hook in his left eyes, lifting the boy into the air due to the chain attached to his right forearm armor. Holding onto the chain as firmly as he could with his right hand, he threw the other hook in his left hand and hooked it into the top of the beast's skull. As the beast was staggering and roaring due to the new pain inflicted onto it, the boy swung around the beast by the chains and loosely wrapped the chains around the beast's neck before he crashed into the ground. Gathering all of his remain strength, the boy shakily stood up and violently pulled the chains, intending to choke the beast to dead._

 _But he didn't prepare to see a silver silhoutte of the beast was being slowly pulled out from the beast's head before it was abosrbed into the pair of hooks which had returned to his hands as the beast slowly dropped to the ground unmoving._

 _Letting out a tired grunt, all the strength slowly left the boy as he collapsed onto his knees and fell to ground before his vision turned black._

 **[Flashback end]**

"Hey, hey are you okay?"

A strange feminine voice snapped the young man out of his train of thought. Looking up, a young girl who had blue eyes and short blonde hair with a fluffy blue hair accessory was looking at him with her curious eyes. Judging from her attires, the young man could hazard a guess that this girl came from a wealthy family. But he could easily feel there were something more behind that kind smile the girl was having on her face.

Ever since the day he first used **Claws of Hades** , he had somehow slowly gained a strange ability that helped him detected negative emotions around him. And the girl in front of him... he could feel the hatred, the cruelty and the bloodlust and sadistic were emitting from her.

"I'm fine. I'm just taking a break." Said the young man politely. Since he had no idea about this girl's intention, he decided to play along for the time being.

"Are you a traveler?" he nodded. Turning his eyes briefly to the two that were standing behind near a carriage, he could feel the twisted and hatred emotions similar to the girl coming from them. This was clearly not a good sign.

"It's getting dark now. If you don't have any place to stay for the night, would you like to come to my home and spend a night?" the moment the girl finished her offer, the young man could feel a rise of negative emotions in the girl.

"... There is no need for that. I can stay here. And more importantly, why would you invite me, a complete stranger, to your home?" said the young man in his usual neutral tone as he decided to test how persistent she could be and more importantly, to check whether her negative emotions would rise or not

"You should accept her generousity." Came the voice of one of the two people standing near the carriage, making the young man slightly raised his left eyesbrom

"Lady Aria just can't ignore people like you" came the voice of the other person with a small twisted smile that didn't escape the eyes of the young man.

And at that moment, not only he could feel the rise of negative emotions, he could feel another thing that he was too familiar with coming from the girl.

The feeling of a predator, waiting to jump out from where it hid and devour its prey.

"So, what would you like to do?" asked the girl now name Aria with a smile as she stood up straight from her current position and waited for his answer.

So in her eyes, he was like a prey to her, snorted the young man mentally. He could clearly feel a trap was waiting for him to step in and why he didn't really worry about that, what bothered him was the fact he still hadn't found out her intention when she had offered him a place to spend a night. And assumption was not exactly the best way to figure it out. Perhaps...

'... If you don't mind then fine." Said the young man as he stood up with his backpack

... he would humor this girl for the time being. And this would be his chance to find out more about her nature and her motivation. And if things went into the worst scenario, ...

"Splendid! Oh right, my name is Aria. What is your name?" replied Aria with an obvious fake smile in his his eyes

" You can call me... **'Chef'**." Came the short reply from the young man as he decided

... perhaps the reward for his head might increase sooner than he had expected.

(Chapter end)

 **Author's note: Cornelia and Tsukushi are not OC. They came from the prequel Akame ga Kiru: Zero.**

 **Anyway, please read and review. We authors live by your reviews after all.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Author's rant: Finally finsh the Drakengard 3. Nice game. New year of university is coming and I want to finish this arc before I change my attention to my other fic. And to answer a question, NO, 'Chef' will not join any fraction in the Akame Ga Kill world.**

 **And about the pairings... well, it's still undecided.**

 **Chapter 2:**

" _... For anything in this world... its true value is only born when it's shared... Something you made only for yourself has no value at all..."_

 **[Unknown place, 9 years ago]**

" _Look what we have here..." said a muscular, tanned old man with blond hair and a long blond mustache, his face currently had a huge grin as his eyes behind his sunglasses kept looking at the ivory hair boy who was currently on all of his limps, the_ _ **Claw of Hades**_ _currently was on the ground with its chains still attached to the boy's forearm armors "... This child with the hooks is really something. It feels really like a monster going to jump out, doesn't it?"_

" _Mm? That's dangerous, isn't it?" said his companion, a muscular middle-aged man with somewhat spiky black hair and two vertical scars ran across his left eye "Shall I eliminate him?"_

" _Why would you do do that, you moron?" scolded the older man as he somehow still had his grin on his face. Crouching down to the ivory hair boy, the old man took out a large bread and offered it to the ivory hair boy whose eyes were clearly showing the hunger belonged to someone who hadn't had anything to fill the stomach for quite some time_

" _Hey, are you okay?" asked the old man as he offered the bread to the ivory hair boy "Here, go ahead. Eat all you want."_

 _Eyeing the bread as if said bread was his lifeline with his eyes filled with hunger, the ivory hair boy shakily took the bread from the tanned old man._

 _But the old man didn't expect to see the ivory hair boy hid the bread under his tattered grey short-sleeve shirt before he shakily stood up and turned away while dragging the chain hooks on the ground_

" _Wait. Where are you going?" asked the old man, who was still surprised by the boy's action_

 _Slowly, the ivory hair boy turned back with a small yet grateful smile_

" _... To... the village..." said the boy with a shaky voice "... Thank you so much... for the precious bread... it will fill the stomachs... of everyone in the village..."_

" _You are going to share that bread with your family and people in your village?" asked the old man with a raise of his left eyebrow_

" _... I have no... family..." said the boy with a shake of his head "...And yes... we will... share... it... together... All of... us..."_

 _And those were all the boy could say before the boy's eyes slowly closed as he fell on his knees, losing his conciousness. But before the boy's body touched the ground, he was gently caught by the tanned skin old man who took off his sunglasses and inspected the boy's hands with his surprising gentle eyes_

 _The boy's hands... they had barely any fingernails. But with the remaining of his nails still attached to the cuticles of the boy's hands, the old man could guess that perhaps the boy was so hungry that he bit his fingernails in order to distract himself from his stomach. And even when the boy had received the bread, the boy suppressed his desire to bite right into the bread because he thought of the village first instead of himself._

 _What a great heart the boy possessed._

" _ **Mansam**_ _, I will adopt this child." Said the old man suddenly with determination in his voice_

" _Huh? What are you..." this clearly shocked the old man's companion who now known as Mansam_

" _I said I will apopt this child." Repeated the old man_

" _ **Ichiryu**_ _-sama?!"_

" _This child... he possesses a 'sharing heart', something hard to find these days. And you could say that my 'Full Course' is for people like him." Said the old man Ichiryu slowly "Someday... when despair forces the world be on its knees... I'm sure this heart shall deliver hope to the world and the people and maybe even brought a new era with all its might."_

 _As Mansam was still shocked at what Ichiryu had said, the old man's lips morphed into a fatherly and gentle smile_

" _Fufu... I can's wait to see what this boy shall archieve in the future."_

 **[Scene change, present]**

Opium.

It was the disdainful thought of the ivory hair young man when he looked at the dish of curried mutton on the small table in front of him. While he applaused the one who cooked this had chosen a perfect dish that could masked the taste of powdered opium, the young man could still smell a distant smell thanked to the hot temperature of the dish. Had the idiot cook this dish decided to make it cold, the young man might have not recogized.

Keyword: _might have_. Even if he hadn't recognized, the painful cries of ingredients in the dish echoed in his mind was more than a warning to him.

Ever since the moment he had stepped into the mansion of the girl named Aria, he could easily feel a heavy air of negative emotions in the mansion. Hatred, despair, anger, jealousy, pride, envy, bloodlust... all kind of negative emotions mixed together so heavily that made him feel like this foul atmosphere literally resided in every corner of this mansion.

But the behavior of the short light violet grey hair servant who brought the dish to his room and currently standing near his table interested him much more. She wasn't excactly the most beautiful girl he had ever seen though she certainly had her own cuteness. Her rather lithe frame was visibly shaking as her deep dark grey eyes refused to leave the dish on the table while having a mixed emotion. As if she couldn't decide what she should do something or not. But nonetheless, he was sure that she knew his dish was heavily druged. Though he wasn't exactly sure about her next action. Perhaps...

'Oi Kratos, can the **Golden Fleece** prevent poison?' asked the young man mentally

' **Perhap yes.'** Grunted the spirit **'During the time I had it, I had never worried about any kind of disease or infection or poison so it may have the ability to repel the poison. You are going to eat that, aren't you?'**

'Not exactly. Just more or less my curiousity.' Thought the young man as he slowly picked up his spoon...

"Don't!"

... But before the spoon could brought the food to his mouth, it was knocked away by the girl as the tears slowly escaped her eyelids. At this, the young man just raised his right eyebrow while the girl felt onto her knees and started crying quietly.

"... leave..." hearing the voice of the girl, the young man just raised his eyebrow a little higher.

"... Please... please leave this place immediately..." still on her knees, the girl looked up at him with her eyes full of tears and said pleadingly in a sobbing voice "... If you stay... and eat... that... then... they will slowly... kill you..."

She did knew that his food was drugged, thought the young man. But an opium overdose couldn't just easily slowly kill a person. Many opium overdoses, yes. But only one could only make a person addict to it along with many side effects and even in the worst case, death would come but in the matter of minutes, not slowly. And more importantly, she had said 'they'. Did she refered to the family that owned this mansion?

"They?" he asked in his usual neutral voice, pushing the girl to elaborated a little more

"The family who owns this place" said the girl in broken voice "They pick up poor people on the street, lie to them and deceive them. They torture people they take in and seeming take pleasure in it to the point they considered it as their hobby..."

Letting out a small sigh, the young man could only shake his head. It seemed the worst scenario might really going to happen. Just what kind of luck did he have making him meet these kind of people? The worst kind, perhaps?

Nah, maybe not. One of the proofs that proved him wrong was currently living with him in the bar, two other were staying with Yosaku and finally, his customers (who mostly came from the poor part of the capital).

"... So please... I beg you... "continued the girl quietly yet pleadingly which snapped the young man out of his train of thought "... Please leave this place... I can't bare too see another person become their plaything... Especially... after my sister and the last two people who my damned masters had picked up 2 days ago..."

Before the girl could say anything more, the door was opened and the butler that the young man had seen when he had first met Aria's parents stepped in

" **Reol** , what took you so long?" said the butler angrily as he forcefully dragged the girl out by her wrist "I'm very sorry for this good-for-nothing servant, sir. Please enjoy the meal."

The moment the door closed, the young man let out a short sigh as he pulled himself from his thougth. Searching his backpack, the young man took out some strange seeds along with some very small jars and put them on his belt. Focussing all his mind, the young man willed a small amount of his Killing Intent and physicalized them into a screen of black smoke covering his body, constantly shifted his outline like an off-focus photograph and obscured all of his features.

' **What are you going to do now, child?'** came the question from Kratos in his mind. Always straight to the point and rarely joked, something that had rubbed on him quite a bit.

'I will do what I see fit.' Came the short reply of the young man before he opened the door.

Time to see things with his own eyes.

 **[Scene change]**

Worthless.

She was worthless. The thought just kept repeating again and again in Reol's mind.

*CRASH!*

"I should have know." sneered the butler as on the floor, Reol lay helplessly as on her left cheek was a large bruise while on her right arm was a long cut "I should know that you would act just like your pathetic twin sister. How dare you betray us when we let you live?"

As the lithe girl was shakily tried to stand up, she was violently kicked in her stomach, knocking the air out of her lung as she rolled toward a wall of the kitchen. Before she could regain her breath, she was kicked right at her temple, making her head slammed into the wall. Despite her near unconcious state, the voices just kept echoing in her mind.

' _Please, sister! If they find out...'_

' _Don't worry, Reol. It will be fine. I will be back soon.'_

She had failed.

Not once. But twice _._

"But that is not important anymore." Said the butler with a vicious smile as he licked the bloodstained kitchen knife in his hand "Now you will have the same fate like your sister. But that doesn't mean I can not have some _fun_ with you before I bring you to lady Aria. Be grateful that I chose to enjoy your worthless body, you little wretch."

Her vision became darker and darker as she felt her clothes were being torn apart.

But she didn't have the strength to fight back. And more importantly, she didn't care anymore.

She knew she would die soon. A slow and painful death. No matter what she did, she would just receive the same result...

Suddenly, a strange sound echoed to her ears as something wet splashed on her face and her mount, which let her taste a strange metallic taste and somewhat snapped her back to reality. And when her sight could finally take in fully what were in front of her, a feeling of dread and terror quickly replaced her feeling of hopelessness.

In front of her eyes, the butler that was going to ravage her now had a look of agony and terror on his face as a hand covered in black smoke had literally pierced through the butler's chest. And what terrified her more was a human heart along with some small bone fragments sticking on it lying in the smoke covered hand.

With a simple clench of said hand, the butler's heart was crushed into pieces as some blood splashed onto her face. Suddenly, the corpse of the butler flew to the side and let Reol looked at owner of the hand, which sent a chill to her spine.

In front of her was the infamous ' **The Black Smoke** ', thesame one that she had once seen in a wanted poster just yesterday morning. And... she felt scared.

But why did she feel scared? Just one moment ago she hadn't even cared or had the will to fight for her life. And yet... Why? Perhaps because she was scared that the wanted killer in front of her decided to save her so that he could kill her himself?

Before her thought could go any further, the wanted killer suddenly crouched down to her eyes. Acting on her instinch, Reol tried to scoot away from the smoke covering person as her uninjured arm held onto the remaining of her tattered clothes and tried to cover her body in an attempt to protect her modesty.

But to her surprise, the wanted person just put what looked like a very small seed on the floor as he took out a very small jar and dropped some droplets of the liquid in the jar onto said seed. In just mere seconds, a strange long green ribbon-liked plant grew up. With a quick movement, the person in front of her grabbed her injured arm and started applying her wound carefully with the strange plant as a makeshift bandage. But what surprised her more was the warm feeling the bandage was giving her as well as the gentleness she could feel from those hands, something that shouldn't be possiple.

But why? The question just kept repeating again and again in her head.

"Can you stand? I will need your help."

A familiar voice snapped her out of her stupor as the smoke around the face of the person dissipated and revealed the face of the one who had killed the butler to her

"You... you are...!" gasped Reol the moment she saw the familiar ivory hair and grey eyes of the young man she tried to warn a while ago.

 **[Scene change]**

"Oh you came back early, dear." Said a man with grey hair, grey mustach and grey goatee who was clad in a grey suit sitting on a sofa in front of a fireplace after he heard the sound of his office's door opened along with soft sounds of footstep behind him "If only I hadn't had some sudden businesses that need to be taken care of, I would have joined you too. How are their cries of pain today? Are they enjoyable?"

*SHLUK!*

"Arrgghhh!" suddenly the man in suit let out a loud scream of pain as he felt something impaled him from behind and lifted both him and his sofa up into the air. But before he could land on the floor...

*SHRUSH!*

"Gaah!" the man let out another scream of agony when he landed on the floor, his right leg was brutally cut off as the remain of his femur bone could be seen . Turning his head back, the man in the bloody suit let out a squeal as he tried to crawl away, blood splurted out from where his right leg was cut off.

"You... ! Get... get away from me!" in front of the crawling form of the owner of the mansion, a humanoid figure covered in a screen of black smoke was slowly approaching, in its hands was a bloody halbert which normally was used as a decoration in the office. Noticing there was a servant stood at the door, the man in bloody suit screamed

"You! You stop him! Save me!" ordered the man but the grey hair female servant just looked at him with hate-filled eyes

Before the man could continue ordering or crawl away, the axe blade of the halbert hit him at his right shoulder and brutally removed the right arm that was pointing at the female servant with a just a small twist.

"Graaah!" cried the man as he somehow could still hold onto his conciousness despite losing an arm, a leg and a large amount of blood.

" **You asked me if the cries of pain is enjoyable or not..."** said the black smoke figure darkly in a cold apathetic tone, his right foot stepped onto the head of the near-dead man **"... Well, I believe now you know the answer you want."**

And with a hard stomp, the figure in black smoke crushed the skull, ending the life of a trash of the world. Turning his head to the female servant, the figure covered in black smoke said simply

"Where should I go next, Reol?"

 **[Scene change]**

Power tended to corrupt and absolute power corrupted absolutely. That was why great power came great responsibility. Yet... the young man couldn't help but let out a long sigh everytime he thought about that as he was currently walking in a hallway of the mansion.

Everything always had at least two side, just like a coin. There were various kind of 'responsibilities' out there and whether those 'responsibilities' were Good or Bad... Well, that depended on the interpretation of the people who held those 'responsibilities'.

With a simple twirl of the bloody halbert in his hands, the young man easily cut down two guards who tried to sneak a surprise attack behind his back. Flicking the halbert, the young man continued his walk toward the place used for torturing that Reol had given the direction for him.

' **What are you going to do with the Reol girl after finishing this?'** the voice of the former Ghost of Spartan echoed in his mind

'Nothing.' Came his smple reply as he cut down another guard who stood in front of a metal door similar to the door Reol had described

' **You don't care if she would alert those Imperial Police weaklings about your other identity, do you?'** Came the voice of Kratos that was more like a statement than a question

Focusing his mind, he could feel a mass of bloodlust and negative feeling coming from behind the door, confirming that this was where the torture occured. Putting his left hand on the door, the young man gave a light push. Quite heavy for a normal human to easily open.

'She helped me and that was enough. While I will ask her to keep my identity a secret, what she chooses to do afterward is not my concern and I have no right to judge what she chooses to do. And moreover, I believe she will agree to keep my identity a secret for me.' Replied the young man mentally as he applied more force into his push.

After all, the power to choose was one of the most precious gifts a human could have.

*CRASH!*

The metal door fell out of its hinges and made a very loud noise the moment it touched the floor. Perhaps he had used a little too much force. Oh well, better be careful next time.

"Who's there?" the voice of Aria came to his ear as the young man stepped in the room and the scene in front of his eyes was anything but plesant. There was nearly no place on the floor that didn't have blood covered it. Dead bodies that lost many parts were either hanged on the ceiling, put in the cages and tanks or many kind of blood-stained torture equipment. While this was paler compared to the private torture chamber of the former Vice-President he had 'visited', this was more than enough to made the young man snorted in distaste.

Turning his eyes toward the girl who had brought him to the mansion and a woman who was clad in a silk dress, the young man noticed a teenage girl was hanging in front of the two, her body had many open wounds, both new and old and the rise of her chest showed him that she was alive, though barely.

"You! Who do you think..." anything the woman intended to say quickly died in her throat the moment he fully came into their view as the arrogance on both of Aria's and her mother's face now was replaced by a look of fear and utter terror.

Well, it seemed being known as an infamous brutal killer had its own peck, thought the young man amusingly.

Acting as if he didn't care about two human who were currently shaking like a leaf, the young man covered in black smoke walked past them and with a simple swing of the halbert, the chain hanged the girl was cut off as he gently caught the girl with long black with his arms. With the critical condition the teenage girl was in and with all he could do to help the girl, it would depend on how strong her will to live was.

After making sure that the girl's heart was still beating, the young man hit three pressure points on her chest, which quickly made the girl snapped out of her unconcious state and coughed out some blood. A good sign, the young man let out a sigh of relief as he took out a **Fertility Seed**

"Ta... Tatsumi...?" whispered the girl quietly, making the young man raised his eyesbrow with a little curiousity. Her friend's name, perhaps? Shrugging his shoulders a little, the young man crushed the seed into very tiny bits with his fingers and dropped said bits into her mount before he gently massaged her throat to make sure that she swallowed all of it. The bitter taste of the seed quickly made the girl's injured face scrunched a little, making the young man had a small smile of amusement. While **Fertility Seed** contained a small amount of toxic substances that destroyed some cells before triggering the high-speed recovery and increasing the body's natural healing ability to its maximum, he currently didn't have any better medicine to give her, especially in this critical state.

Taking out another seed, the young man took out a small jar and dropped a dropplet of the liquid on it, making another **Doctor Aloe** grew to its full length before using said plant as bandage and carefully applied it on the heavily tortured girl from head to toe.

" **Where do you think you are going?"**

Suddenly, the young man casually threw the halbert to behind his back, impaling it into a wall and effectively stopped the two female owners of the mansion who was trying to sneak away and made them fall onto the bloodstained floor. The moment he stood up and approached the two blond female, they quickly tried to back away as fast as their shaking body could.

" **Why did you do this?"** the young man asked in his cold apatheic tone as he looked straight in their faces. Normally, he would just finish this quickly but this time, he hoped that one of the two in front of him would humor him a little bit, especially after hearing the pathetic begging came from the former Vice-Prime Minister the last time.

In just a blink of eyes, the scared espression on the face of Aria quickly disappeared and replaced with a twisted sadistic espression as she yelled at him

"Because country trash like them should be on their knees begging me to kill! And besides, how dare a lowly farm animal like her had such straight flawless hair while I'm troubled with such unruly hair!..."

Envy, thought the young man in disdain. Sometimes he couldn't help but wonder why would human could easily take away a life with such a reason like envy or having fun... But then again, even he had taken away quite a number of human lifes. What right did he have to judge them? Killing was still killing, bloodshed was still bloodshed. What was the difference?

"... That's why I agonized her so meticulously! In fact, she should be grateful that I took such a good care of her!"

... And on the side note, he must applaused for Aria's lash out. At least she had enough either courage or stupidity to angrily lash out at someone who might kill her before she could notice it, unlike the Vice-Prime Minister or Honest's coward secretary.

But of course, that didn't mean it could change the outcome he intended to give them.

With a flick of his left wrist, a pair of chains attached to a pair of forearm armor appeared on his arms, each ending in three claw-like daggers that gave off a teal colored aura. Holding the claw-like daggers in reversed grip, the young man said in the same cold apathetic tone that quickly brought the look of terror back to Aria's and her mother's face

" **I sincerely thank you for such attention. So please... let's me teach you two a new way of torture as my thank you gift."**

And the teal lightnings the daggers gave off was the final thing both the blond sadistic female saw before their world were filled with only one thing.

Agony.

(Chapter end)


	4. Chapter 3

**Author's rant: Which person you prefer to be alive? Sheele, Chelsea or Bulat?**

 **Anyway, enjoy the show, minna-san...**

 **Chapter 3:**

" _Choosing your path, you go where the path will lead. Forging your path, you go where there is no path and leave behind a trail. Which will you choose?"_

 **[Unknown place, 6 years ago]**

" _What's wrong,_ _ **Eiji**_ _? Done already?"_

" _Ggaahh!"_

 _In the middle of a small plain island, roared a certain teenager who had ivory hair as from his elbows to hands were covered in a pairs of large metal gauntlets, each forged to resemble a snarling lion's head while was clad only in a black shorts, dashed toward the muscular tanned skin old man with blond hair and long blond mustache, his right arm cocked back before he threw a punch with a force that could drill a huge hole through a mountain at the old man._

 _But much to the teenager's surprise, the old man just simply caught the tip of the gauntlet with the tip of his left hand's fingers_

" _You have come far." Said Ichiryu with a fatherly eye-smile "As a reward, I will teach you how to hop on the water surface."_

 _*CRUSH!*_

 _The old man's right fist met the teen's nose with a force that knocked the teenager into the air and made his body skip on the water surface ten times before the ivory hair teenager crashed into another small island not to far from there._

" _Fufufu, how was it, Eiji?" said the old man with a his usual fatherly smile as he literally hopped on the water surface to where the teenager was "The feeling of hopping on the water surface?"_

" _Gah! D... da... damn it!" groaned the teenager as he tried to get up, his nose now was broken and bleeding while the_ _ **Nemean Cestus**_ _on his arm disappeared "I... still can't win, huh?..."_

" _No, no. You are a lot stronger now, Eiji." Grinned Ichiryu as he offered his hand to the teenager "I'm really delight to know that."_

 _Taking the old man's firm hand, the young man stood up while trying to stop the blood flowing from his broken nose_

" _... Guh... I have show you... most of my power... Now am I passable for the World out there, old man?" asked the teenager as his face slightly twisted into a painful expression._

" _Hm, in term of strength and power, I can't say you don't pass, especially with the help of the soul inside you if you're in a desperate time." Said the old man as he patted on the teenager's back "But you can't just travel the World with just that. Especially that your enemies will not only aggressive wild beasts or human but also special 'climates' and 'weathers'. If you couldn't cope with those, you will lose your life."_

" _Special climates?" said the teenager questionably_

" _Last time when I brought you to_ _ **Ice Hell**_ _, did your breath turn white?" said the muscular old man with a raise of his eyebrow_

" _Well, it was very cold at there." Deadpanned the teenager "Of course it would turn white..."_

" _Ah, then there's absolutely no way you could survive out there." Said Ichiryu as he waved his hand dismissively, his mustache moved up and down comically while the ivory hair teenager just gasped in surprise_

" _Ehh? What the hell, old man? Why? How" sputtered the young man but Ichiryu just turned away_

" _Eiji." Said the tanned skin old man seriously which immediately stopped the teenager's sputter "From this point foward, I want you to train your body until it can instantaneously adapt to different changes in enviroment. Are you clear?"_

" _... I understand" said the teenager after letting out a sigh_

" _Good. Now let's head back and start your training then." With a merry laugh, Ichiryu turned away and left the small island by hopping on the water surface, much to the teenager's dismay_

" _Oi, oi! I told you that I can't hop on the water like you!" yelled the ivory hair teenager before he jumped into the water and swam "Gah! Damn it! You remember this, old man!"_

 **[Unknown place]**

 _What would be your reaction if one day when you was ready to embrace your death, you suddenly found out now you were inside a young boy's mind and sharing his senses?_

 _For Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta, the former God of War as well as the God Slayers, a person who had lived in fury and vengeance for too long, his first reaction when he had realized he had been in a young boy's mind eleven years ago was furious. Just when he had been ready to see his family again in the afterlife, he had found himself stuck in a young boy's mind. What kind of trickery was this?! Was this some kind of revenge from Athena?! Though his fury had quickly subdued just like how fast his fury had risen when a realization had hit him._

 _With all the destruction he had done, all the blood he had shed, all the vain sacrifice for vengeance, he would never be welcomed in the Elysium Fields. Even with the death of Hades..._

 _And that moment, the new horror had engulfed his mind as he had been hit by another realization._

 _After the death of Hades, the Underworld realm now became a desolate and chaos place where souls roamed forver in despair and Elysium Fields, the place where his wife and daughter lived was also a part of Underworld, which meant..._

 _No._

 _Nononononono!_

 _He couldn't accept it. He wanted to deny it. But a part in him told him otherwise_

 _What had he done?_

 _Just what had he done?!_

 _Was this one of the prices he had to pay for his vengeance? Or was this the punishment for bringing the Chaos to the world? Or was this how those damned Gods took revenge on him?_

 _ **"By the Gods, what have I become?"**_

 _ **"Death. The Destroyer...of Worlds."**_

 **[Scene change, present, on the street, midnight]**

While he couldn't call this the clear sky after a hurricane yet but the moon and the stars tonight were still beautiful. Just like they always were even in this crude world, thought the young man with a little amusement as his backpack was worn on the front while on his back was an unconcious humanoid figure covered in **Doctor Aloe**.

Letting out an unnoticeable sigh, the young man moved slightly in order to shift the weight of the girl on his back and make sure that she didn't fell backward in case something suddenly happened. She was the only one he had managed to save. If only he had come to that accursed torture room a day earlier, the teenager who called himself Ieyasu might have a chance to be saved. With Ieyasu's Lubora disease had come to its final state, giving the teenager a mercy death was the only thing he could do for him...

" _... Thank you... for ... saving... Sayo... Now... I can... die without... any... regret..."_

Shaking his head slightly, the young man was really thankful that the teenage girl on his back was still alive. At least Ieyasu could go to the afterlife with a peaceful smile, knowing that his friend had been saved.

"... Chef?"

The silence was broken by the cute yet strong voice belonged to the short violet grey hair girl who was currently walking timidly behind him, her tattered clothes now had been replaced by a dress she had taken from Aria's closet while her hands were carrying a bag full of money, gems and valueable items that she had looted in the mansion.

To be honest, he had been rather surprised when Reol had asked him to take her with him. After all, with all the loot Reol had gathered, she had more than enough money to start a new life, yet she had insisted to join him so that she could repay him as she ignored his words that she had already repaid him with the information , much to his annoyance.

Don't get him wrong. He didn't really have any problem with taking the lithe girl with him (even with six waitresses, he always needed more help with his bar given a large number of customers, especially in special serving days) as long as she could keep his identity a secret but he somewhat disliked people making their choices to be bound to someone just because of some 'life debt'. The power of choice was one of the most powerful allies a human could have and yet they could easily forsake it because of some kindness had been offered to them.

Was it because kindness or a hand offering to help was too rare and hard to find on these days that made the kindness itself become so special? He couldn't help but ask himself that question.

"Chef?" asked Reol again which snapped him out of his train of thought "... Do you think... I am worthless?"

Huh?

While he had expected she would broke the silence sooner or later, her question wasn't what he had expected from her as it did a wonderful job in stopping him in his track. And more importantly, why the sudden question? Insecurity? Self-doubt? Why he wasn't sure, he could see something vulnerable in her deep dark grey eyes.

"... Did you accept to take me with you because of... pity?" continued Reol as she lowed her voice

Pity? Ah, that word really reminded him much about his past. The time when he wondered whether his old man adopted him because of pity or not. Was this some kind of fate or just a repetition of history? Whether it was the former or the latter, he could only say that fate/history really had a strange sense of humor.

"No." said the young man with a shake of his head as his mind started reminiscing what his old man once had told him "And for you first question, no. There is no one worthless."

"But..." before Reol could even finish what she wanted to say, he decided to cut her off cut her off

"Trust me. Everyone has their own worth." Said the young man simply as he looked straight in her eyes "Every second that you spend on doubting your worth is a second of your life wasted. It's not like you have forever, so don't waste any of your seconds."

 **[Meanwhile]**

Leone wasn't sure what she should feel now. The blond assassin had expected many thing might have happened in this mission but she didn't expect to see what she was seeing now.

All the lights in the mansion had went out while blood splashed on nearly everywhere: floors, walls, ceiling. There was absolutely no sign of the servants while all the guards had been mercilessly and brutally killed with some of them had been cut in half from waists or die from losing blood due to having their limps cut off. The man who was supposed to be her target had a large wound showing he had been impaled through his right ribcage by something from behind, his right leg along with his left arm had been brutally removed while his skull had been literally CRUSHED with a such a force that left a small bloody crater on the floor.

Just who had come here before her group and done this?

"Oi Leone!" the voice of Lubbock which snapped the blond assassin out of her stupor "You should come and see this."

Following her friend, Leone came to the room which was full of corpses and torture tools, a room which was _supposed_ to be the torture room.

Keyword: _supposed._ The reason?

"Flowers?"

The floor of the room somehow had been removed showing the dirt of the ground and from it, numerous lilies were blooming under the moonlight which came through a huge hole on a wall. If it wasn't for the corpses and bloody torture tools laying around, this would be a really beautiful sight to see.

"Wow." Said Leone in awe as she picked up a lily. They were just as real as the flowers she had seen outside.

"Wow indeed." said Bulat in a tone that could be considered amusing "Whoever had come here first, done our job and then created this before we came here, I would like to invite that person to dinner."

"You do realize that what you said sounds quite wrong, right?" deadpanned Mine as the shorter girl looked at him incredulously

"Which part of it sounded wrong anyway?" asked Bulat with a raise of his eyebrow

As the pink hair self-proclaimed "Genious Sniper" and the "One Hundred-Man Slayer" were argueing , Leone quickly noticed two smoking charred body impaled into a wall with a bloody halbert. Judging from their clothes, she could assume these two were her group's other targets. But what surprised her the most was the fact that the clothes on the corpses were still somewhat intact instead of having the same fate with their owner. Shouldn't they be reduced to ash? Just how was it possible?

"Hey guys! I think I found the remain of our targets." Said the blond hair assassin which made the remain of her group came close in order to inspect

"Damn. I almost feel bad for them. Almost." Said Lubbock as he internally winced.

"That's aside. How can they be burned like that?" mused Bulat at he inspected the bodies carefully

"Teigu?" suggested Mine with a frown

"I don't think so." Said Bulat with a shake of his head "Arcording to my knowledge, the only known Teigu using fire is **Rubicante** is currently in the possession of the Empire and I doubt it would be used here. And even if that Teigu had been used here, there was no way that the clothes could still be intact like this."

"Perhap it was a lost Teigu?" came the suggestion from Leone as she looked at the holes on the bloody clothes showing that something had been stabbed through

"Perhap" nodded the black hair assassin "Anyway, we should go back... Wait, where is Akame?"

Four heads quickly turned around in order to find the last member of their group until their eyes found the red eyes assasin was standing on the other side of the room as she was looking at the wall in front of her

"Hey Akame, let's go back..." said Leone as she tapped on Akame's shoulder though her speech quickly died in her throat when she saw three unknown words written in a strange red liquid on the wall

 _ **Requiescat in pace**_

 **[Scene change, a few minutes later]**

In his twenty years of life, he had seen many expressions of surprise but to be surprised to the point having the kind of expression of surprise that he was currently seeing on Reol's face... well, he admitted it was the first time.

And to be honest, he found it rather amusing.

"... You... you are the famous 'Chef' that the poor people told about?!" sputtered Reol which earned her a tired nod from the young man as now both she and him was standing in front of his **Ichiryu's Bar.** Though he couldn't help but frown when he saw the dim light coming from behind the closed door. Shouldn't _they_ be asleep now? And why could he feel a tense atmosphere coming from behind the door?

Oh well, there was only one way to find out, sighed the young man as he pushed the door open with his shoulder after checking that the door wasn't locked. Tomorrow was a special serving day and he really wanted to sleep now, staying outside clearly not a choice.

"I'm home." Said the young man more like to himself

"Oh, welcome back." Came a voice replying him in a somewhat haughty tone "Mind explaining who are these two? And who are you carrying on your back?"

A really tense atmosphere was floating in the bar was the first thing he noticed before he noticed all the six waitresses of the bar were sitting on one side of a long table while there were two other familiar-looking girls sitting on the other side. And for a very brief moment, the young man swore that he had seen something like lightning flying back and forth between the two sides. Did his imagination just trick him?

"Ah! Long time no see, darling~ Did you miss me?" said one of the two girls on the other side cheerfully which snapped the young man out of his thought before his tired mind remembered why these two girls looked familiar

"Cornelia? Tsukushi? What are you doing here?" asked the young man with a mild surprise as he could feel six gazes (seven if he counted Reol's) were drilling into him.

And why did he have a dreadful feeling that his sleep was going to be cut short?

(Chapter end.)

 **Author's note: Eiji (** **栄治** **) in Japanese means "prosperity" and "peace"**


	5. Chapter 4

**Author's rant: I'm back!**

 **After spending a long time living in the darkness, to be able to see the sunlight again with my own eyes... it's too good to be described by words**

 **Thank you everyone have supported me and haven't unfollowed me after nearly a year. Time to get back now**

 **Chapter 4:**

" _Everything has its beginning. But it doesn't start at "One"... It starts long before that, in_ _ **chaos**_ _. The world is born... from zero. The moment zero becomes one is the moment the world springs to life. One becomes two, two becomes ten, ten becomes 100. Taking it all back to one solves nothing. So long as Zero remains, one... will eventually grow to 100 again."_

 **[Unknown place, 2 years ago]**

 _On a headland facing the sea under the starry sky, there were a large vine-like and spiral-shaped tree that was called_ _ **Million Tree**_ _along with numerous_ _ **Food Immersion Flowers**_ _growing well around the tree despite the land had dried up a long time ago._

 _And on the flower bed growing aroung the tree, a young man with ivory hair who was clad in a black suit along with a white shirt, a black tie which was tied in the most bizarre way that no one could imagine, black shoes and a black fedora hat could be seen sitting for the past five days, his grey eyes had a sad yet faraway look as he silently gazed at the Million Tree that was used as the gravestone for his adopted old man._

 _In the world full of unfairness, if there was anything given to all equally, it was Birth and Death. Even though the young man knew that the day his old man would travel to the afterlife would come sooner or later but... This was still too hard for him to accept..._

" _Hey Eiji" the sound of someone sat down next to him along with a familiar voice reached his ears "Wanna have a drink?"_

" _Mansam." The young man acknowledged the presence of the middle-aged man with a nod, his eyes never left the spiral-shaped tree._

" _Did you just call me handsome?" said Mansam delightfully_

" _In your dream, drunkard." said the young man sardonically, much to the muscular man's disappointment though he still let out a laugh at the young man's sardonic reply_

" _The Milky Way tonight is really beautiful, isn't it? Though I really think you should learn to tie your tie properly." chuckled Mansam while offering a dish toward the young man "Here, have some edamame beans"_

" _... I don't think I could swallow anything right now..." said the young man, not even caring to take a glance at the offering dish_

 _Shaking his head, the spiky hair middle-aged man let out an unnoticeable sigh as he took out a jar along with three cups and put them on the flowers bed._

" _This is the one and only liqour that Ichiryu-sama liked." Said Mansam as he started filling said cups with the beverage in the jar. This quickly gained the attention of the young man as he glance slightly at the cups_

" _... The old man was a weak drinker, wasn't he?" said the young man with his eyebrows raised a little bit_

" _... This is_ _ **Maboro Sake**_ _, though it's not an illusion_ _ **(*)**_ _or anything like that. It's just a normal alcoholic drink you can easily get and it's not too strong. Personally, I'm not exactly fond of it." Said Mansam as he offered a cup to the young man "Here, let's lift the glass, shall we?"_

 _Eyeing the cup almost lazily, the young man took the offered cup and take a small sip before releasing a small wistful sigh_

" _... This flavor seems very much like him... Simple but really nostalgic..."_

" _Agree." Chuckled Mansam as he put a cup under the Million Tree as he picked up the final cup and gulfed down the liquor in one go "No doubt, Ichiryu-sama truly was the best man in the world. Same goes for his kindness..."_

" _... Yeah." Said the young man as he took another sip._

 _The two men just sat there, continuing to drink the beverage in a comfortable silence as each of their mind went after their own train of thought._

" _... Are you really going to leave?" asked Mansam as he poured another cup for himself and gulfed down in one go_

 _The young man just gave a small nod as he finished his cup._

" _So you won't change your mind." Sighed the middle-aged man as the young man's eyes turned toward the Milky Way_

" _... I need to see_ _ **The Eight King**_ _and also..." said the young man with a very small hint of hesistance "... I... need to find my answer..."_

" _... If that's what you want then so be it..." said Mansam somberly before he gulfed down another cup "... Though can I have a conversation with_ _ **him**_ _? Privately?"_

 _The young man raised his eyebrows a little at the sudden request of Mansam but seeing his earnest expression, the young man just nodded slightly before his skin colored slowly changed from light tanned to pale as the moon, his grey eyes slowly turned black while a red tattoo-liked mark running over his left eyes appeared on his face._

" _ **Speak."**_ _The young man said in a gruff voice as Mansam simply gave a nod before offered a cup to the young man._

 _Time to lift the glass._

 **[Present, the next morning]**

Orange

The moment Sayo's eyes slowly opened, pale orange color was the first thing she saw and she could feel she was engulfed in a warm and soft sensation as she could feel barely any pain from the wounds she had been inflicted on.

Was she dead?

Was this heaven?

"Oh you're awake!" came a unfamiliar soft voice that quickly gained Sayo's attention.

Was that the voice an angel? Sayo couldn't help but wonder

Turning her head to her right, she saw a beautiful girl with long brown hair tied into a pony tail with two long bangs on the sides of her face, light green eyes and the number **"IV"** on the middle of her forehead . She was clad in a long-sleeved short dress with sleeveless green vest, brown gloves, long brown stockings, green socks, brown boots while on her hands was a tray that carried some strange liquid in some bottles.

"How are you feel now?" the girl asked her kindly

"... Am I... dead?" asked Sayo hesistantly "... Is this place... Heaven?"

This brought a smile to the face of the unfamiliar girl as she shook her head slightly

"No, you're still alive." Said the beautiful girl as she put the tray on her hands on a table near there "How are you feeling now?"

"... I feel... warm... " said Sayo as she tried to sit up but a sudden tiredness washed over her, preventing her from getting out of her current position.

"Take it easy there." Said the girl as she helped Sayo sit up and let the black hair girl's back leant onto the headbed, which gave Sayo the chance to find out she was in a small windowless bedroom with a droplet-shaped lamp as the main source of light in the room instead of the torture room in her blurry memory "While all your wounds has closed, your body are still weak due to the malnutrition. Here, drink this."

Carefully holding the glass, Sayo eyed the brown liquid with a suspicious look, which couldn't be help due to her last experience with the food offered to her, before she looked up at the beautiful girl who was standing near her bed. Just who was this person? How did she end up here? And more importantly, how was Ieyasu?

"Who... are you?" asked Sayo warily

"My name is **Four**." Replied the girl kindly as Sayo was clearly taken back by how strange the name was "And don't worry, it's a medicine that can help you recover your strength. Drink it and I will try to answer your questions as best as I can."

 **[Meanwhile]**

Tatsumi was crying. Not because of hurt, pain, anguish or anything like that.

It was because of happiness as well as the food that he had just hungrily wolfed down a moment ago. Just like all the others customers in the **Ichiryu's Bar**.

After his first day in the Capital where he had been scammed all of his money by "the blond onee-chan", refused to be lodged by all the people he had asked which had led him spend the cold night in a dirty alley with an empty stomach, he had started losing his hope in the kindness of the Capital's citizen. But now...

"Do you want a second serving, Tatsumi?" asked the waitress, who was clad in a rather revealing blue outfit with long blue gloves and a long blue scarf as she had short and slight messy blue hair and light blue eyes, in a cheerful voice. Though what gained most of his attention about her was the roman numeral **"II"** on her forehead.

"Yes! Aahh... I mean, yes, if I could..." said Tatsumi as he blushed furiously while trying to keep his eyes away from her chest as well as her hip. Even though he had had to stand in a very long line for nearly two hours so that he could eat free, it was totally worth it! And he also needed to thank the old lady who had told him about this bar as well as all the Gods out there for making the owner open the bar today...

"Huh? Why was it so noisy outside?" mused the blue hair waitress after returning and putting another serving in front of Tatsumi. This quickly gained Tatsumi's attention as he turned his head toward the door of the bar

"Out of my way, you lowly cunt!" came a loud voice as the door of the bar was opened violently before a a large muscular man in Imperial Police armor with an unusual hairstyle with four ponytails or braids on the back of his head wrapped in white cloth, a large star-shaped scar over his missing left eye while his remaining eye was red with a black sclera stepped inside. Following behind him was two other guards who were also in Imperial Police armor.

The presence of the muscular man quicly brought the fear to the face of many customers, all of them seemed coming from the poor, much to Tatsumi's alert and confusion. Just who was this person?

"Give me and my fellow all the best food you have here!" roared the muscular man as he violently shoved some customers from their seats before taking said seats for their own, which made Tatsumi's blood boil. But much to Tatsumi's surprise, all the waitresses seemed liked they weren't fazed by the muscular man's anger even a little bit as the waitress, who in Tatsumi's opinion was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, with long white hair and was clad in a revealing white dress, white socks, black high heeless heels and a black bow on top of her head approached the muscular man with a bored look

"Who are you?" asked the waitress somewhat haughtily and despite her bored look, Tatsumi could tell this waitress was really irritated just by the presence of the man as well as his two goons if her twitching left eyebrow indicated anything.

"I'm Ogre, Imperial Police Captain and the king of the city!" boasted Ogre with arrogance and pride, showing his sharp teeth before he nodded his head toward his goons. Needless to say, the man's attitude really annoyed Tatsumi "And these are my underlings, Signed and Vorge."

"Want to go out with me, beauty?" said the guard, whom Tatsumi assumed was Vorge, with a shit-eating grin while the other guard forcefully groped the waitress's rear.

*CRUNCH!*

Before Tatsumi could blink, the guard was knocked into the air and flew toward the door by a right hook from the waitress as the sound of jaw breaking made him sweat nervously. Just what kind of strength did this waitress possess?

"You bitch!" screamed the other guard as he thrusted his sword toward, but the waitress just simply side-stepped the incoming sword before holding onto the arm holding sword and used the momentum to spin the guard to the other direction...

"Grah!"

... which (un)fortunately was the direction the self-proclaimed king of the city was coming for a sneak attack as Ogre let out a scream of agony. Having a sword pierced through the left shoulder was not a good experience after all

"B-boss..." sputtered the guard incoherently only for the waitress to grap his left arm and twist it backward with a sound that made Tatsumi cring. The final guard fell on his knees, his arm was bent into a very scary angle that was more than enough to remind Tatsumi one thing he had nearly forgotten:

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

"Now get the hell out the here!" grapping the colar of the three men, the waitress literally threw them out of the bar with little effort. Slapping her hands together, the waitress turned her glare toward the jaw-dropping customers in the bar

"What?" one word and the customers were ready to jump out of their seats as Tatsumi was ready to hide under the table out of fear.

"Oh please don't mind her." Said the large breasts waitress in black revealing clothings with long blond hair, which reminded Tatsumi a little too much about the 'onee-san' that had tricked him the previous day, and a roman numeral ' **V** ' on her forhead "She's just having some 'woman' frustration."

"Just shut the fuck up, **Five.** " snarled the waitress with a hint of disdain in her tone as Tatsumi couldn't help but notice the name of the blond waitress. Five? As in number?

"Oh, such vulgar mouth. It makes my juice flowing, **Zero**." Moaned Five sensually as Tatsumi blushed at her words "You really need to release your pent-up desire . Too bad you will have to wai..."

*CRASH!*

A chair literally flew past Tatsumi's head and slammed into a wall instead of Five, who had easily dodged the flying object.

In just one second, Tatsumi felt like all of his past life had played in front of his eyes. He came here for a meal, not to be killed by a freaking flying chair thrown by a waitress, no matter how beautiful she was! He needed to get out of here ASAP! For the sake of his life! Second serving be damned!

"I. Said. Shut..." growled Zero but before she could finish her sentence and Tatsumi could even move from his seat...

"Why is it so noisy out here?"

A rather blank and lazy voice stopped both him and Zero.

... The kitchen door opened as a food troller pushed by a young man about a few years older than Tatsumi appeared. His ivory hair was rather messy with the bang of his hair slightly covered his right grey eye. If it hadn't been for the stained white grey apron, Tatsumi would have thought this young man was a waiter, not a cook.

"Oh, Chef. Just some trashes got in, got out and the usual bickering between Zero and Five." Said another waitress lazily. This waitress had violet eyes, dark violet hair just passed her shoulder and a roman numeral **"III"** on her forehead.

Wait, this person was the 'Chef' Tatsumi was told about?! So that meant this person was the same owner of this bar?! Tatsumi couldn't help but be surprised. This person was only a few years older than him! And throwing chair at each other was not bickering!

"Okay." Nodded the young man "Now help me with serving the dishes."

Wait, that was it, screamed Tatsumi in his mind. Why had he acted as if these things were usual...

Oh, right. The waitress with dark violet hair did say this was usual...

"Hey Chef!" a familiar voice reached Tatsumi's ears, making his eyes widen "Give me that Summer Whiskey and Cheese Cabbage again!"

"You!" shouted Tatsumi as he pointed at the owner of the voice who had just entered the bar "You're the one who swindled my money!"

"Hey hey, what're you talking abou..." said Leone with a small hint of nervous but before she could finish her sentence...

"Is that true, Leone?"

... the apathetic voice of Chef stopped her, his stoic grey eyes looked straight at the now nervous blond hair young woman, daring her to lie even a word to him

"... Um... Well... I-I just intended to give him a lesson about trusting..." stuttered Leone as she sweated while Tatsumi couldn't help but shudder.

This person... Even though his tone laced no emotion, he could feel the coldness radiating and aiming as the busty blond hair girl. This 'Chef' person clearly wasn't someone he would want to anger. And the moment Chef briefly took a glance at Tatsumi...

"Erk!" squealed Tatsumi as he nearly fell out of his chair. In a split second, Tatsumi could swear he saw a bald man with pale skin and a red stripe tatoo ran over his left eye was glaring at him with a look filled killing intent instead of the ivory hair young man.

Just what the hell did he get into?

"So you did swindle him." Stated Chef as his eyes felt like they were piercing throught Leone's soul and for a moment, Tatsumi _almost_ pitied the blond hair young woman.

Almost.

"Wait wait! I intended to return his money to him! I swear! Honest!" cried Leone desperately and Tatsumi could see a small amount of fear in her eyes

"Leone. From now on, you're banned from coming to my bar." Said Chef emotionlessly before returning to the kitchen " **Zero** , do the honor."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! PLEASE! ANYTHING BUT THAT!" and it was all Leone managed to scream before Zero held onto her scarf and literally threw her out of the bar

(Chapter end)

 **(*) Maboro sake (** まぼろ酒 **) is a** **a pun referring to 'maboroshi' (meaning 'illusion')**.


End file.
